Death and Restoration
by star-warrior20
Summary: Loosely based on the game and inspired by an AU biography I found and read on DeviantArt. What if it was just all in her head? What if Alice was merely delusional and schizophrenic?


"Happy Birthday, Alice," yelled the Mad Hatter and the March Hare in unison, jumping up and down in their joy as they brought the tri-layered cake over to the table. It was pink frosted vanilla trimmed in yellow frosting with pretty flowers in various places and seven lit candles on the top layer. Oh how it looked so vastly delicious, the birthday girl couldn't wait to eat it with her good friends gathered there to celebrate.  
There to her left was the Cheshire Cat, grinning as always, but he seemed to be grinning even more broadly than ever, perhaps because it was a special occasion. In the center of the table was the Dormouse, sleeping as always, though it was rather strange as there was a cat not far from him, but that didn't much matter, he would be awoken for a brief period so to wish Alice a happy birthday. The White Rabbit, of course, was there as well, seated to her right and dressed in his finest waistcoat and unsurprisingly with a pocket watch in his pocket, which he nervously checked every few minutes as if he didn't have much time.  
Alice, seated at the head of the table in a large, cushioned chair that was finer than the seats at which her friends sat, was naturally very excited to be celebrating here in Wonderland. It was so delightful to be there on that bright, sunshine day with not a cloud in the sky and all the land bright and cheerful as if to mark her birthday with them. The girl, herself, seemed to be glowing with joy, her vivid eyes betraying her eagerness to begin the celebration that same moment and also her wish for it to never end.

"What are we going to do, Dear," Melissa asked of her husband. "She's been going off to Wonderland for over a year and spends more time there than she does with us or anyone else." Her concern for her youngest daughter was evident in her tone as well as her lovely features and in her wonderful dark eyes.  
"Now my Love," said Tom, her husband, ever the understanding husband, "Alice is but a child, and you know how children tend to be at Alice's age."  
"But, Tom, girls at Alice's age should begin learning to sew and to cook for when they come of age to marry."  
"She might well be learning that in Wonderland."  
"Tom," she cried softly. "Wonderland is all in her head, and there are no skills for cooking or sewing in her head, she can't be teaching herself these things."  
"Wait a few years at least, Melissa. If it doesn't stop by the time she reaches thirteen, we'll fetch a doctor."  
"By then it will be too late. It's a long process to learn everything she will need; we can't afford to wait for it to stop. Thirteen is the coming of age to marry, Tom, you know this."  
"If we force her to stop now, she may well be unfit to marry later when she is old enough to do so. Let's wait until then."  
As Tom was the Man of the House and his word was final, Melissa could do no more but sit and obey his command, though her Mother's Instinct shouted the danger in which her youngest child sat, blissfully making mirth on her birthday.

"Ah, Alice, how wonderful to see you tonight!" cried the Mad Hatter as the young woman of thirteen walked toward him in all unhappiness. The night was cloudy and the land about seemed dark and unfriendly as though to reflect the mood of the young girl.  
"Hello Hatter," she greeted, not even bothering to try and mask the gloomy mood in which she was currently.  
"Why, Alice, what's the matter?" asked the March Hare, ever in the presence of the Hatter.  
"I've seen the doctor today, and he says I have something called 'Daylight Hallucination Schizophrenia', whatever that is, but my parents are very worried." Melissa had allowed her Mother's Instinct to get the better of her & would not let Tom put the matter to rest until they'd fetched a doctor.  
"Oh, don't worry yourself about it. Come let's have tea and share riddles." The Hatter knew well that tea always managed to cheer Alice up, as well as the company of her friends & the sharing of riddles.  
Thus she felt her troubles melt away as she took her first sip of tea and the game began. All about them the land cheered along with her, flowers bloomed & seemed intensely colorful, the clouds vanished, birds flew about, chirping their happy songs.  
"Tell me, Alice, what it is that brings you out so late?" the Hare questioned gently as Hatter sat in thought.  
"I couldn't sleep. The doctor's words have been bothering me all day."  
"Oh, it'll be all fine, you'll see."  
"I've got one," Hatter said triumphantly, lifting his chin & looking quite victorious. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"  
It was a difficult riddle indeed and Alice furrowed her brow deeply as she sat thinking on a likely answer to it, pensively sipping at her tea as she did so.  
The game went long into the night, though no one cared to keep track of the time until White Rabbit appeared as if out of nowhere. He looked to be more pressed for time than usual and he gave off the vibe that it was very late and everyone should be getting indoors.  
"It's midnight, Alice; you should be getting home just now." At his words, the girl seemed quite unconcerned, but figured that it would likely be wiser to return home now than later when everyone had risen.  
"Oh," she cried, "I must go my friends. Thank you very much for the tea and game, I feel much better." She hugged them all tightly and headed off from the woods toward home, but as she went, a sudden sick fear entered her heart and she began to run home.  
The girl came within several paces from the edge of the woodland and she smelled smoke, as from a killing fire that had consumed something immense. Also in that smell she caught the horrible, sickening stench of scorched flesh and knew in her heart, though she vehemently denied as she had no valid proof as of yet, that the fire from the candle she had lit to help her find the way home had caught something and now the whole house was razed to the ground.  
She had no need for the candle now; her feet seemed to know the way on their own as she dashed madly to the scene of her torched home, the remains of the lower storey still standing against the flame as though determined to fight, a noble effort, but a vain one. The sight of it pierced Alice's heart and she lost the strength in her legs and so fell to her knees, crying bitterly in the knowledge that her parents and sister had been consumed, the stench of their likely still smoldering corpses stinging her nostrils. The orphaned child put her face in her hands and sobbed until the night ended and then beyond until she had grown numb and cold inside.  
Officials came and took the girl, the only known survivor, away, and only then did she halt in her crying, too numb and weak to care for anything. It is in this moment that she falls into the waiting arms of slumber, only to be haunted by dreams of her parents and her sister dying in terrible pain.

_It was a deep, peaceful, dreamless sleep, no one knowing that one of their small number had gone off alone, unknowingly sealing their doom as she left them behind to find solitude so that she might acquire the peace to finally fall gently into the arms of blissful, ignorant slumber. She cannot be blamed for what happened an hour later, but she came to regret ever lighting that blasted candle and placing it in her window sill so to make it all the easier to return.  
Lo! the candle flame occasionally strays a little closer to the nearby curtain, heating it rapidly until it finally catches and thereby beginning the bane of the family and also of Wonderland. The fire spreads quickly to consume the entire curtain and shortly the other curtain and the carpet beneath as well and it then spreads rapidly.  
Dinah, Alice's lovely cat, having sensed the danger of the swelling flame, made a frightened bolt for the door, left open by Alice should she choose to roam about the house a while or to go have herself a nighttime snack. She didn't bother to alert the rest of the household, she was far too scared to even think of the family that had cared for her so well throughout her short life. The animal had gone into self-preservation, as beings are wont to do in such situations and therefore made for the nearest exit that would lead away from the house.  
There! A window left purposefully open to allow air to circulate through the house on that warm night, though it was the middle of autumn. Through it was Dinah's only chance of survival and she took it without so much as a hint of hesitation, making for the nearby woods, never intending to see Alice again, knowing not when the Human girl would return.  
By now the fire had reached the hallway and Tom and Melissa and Alice's sister were beginning to stir as the smoke billowed under their closed doors and filled their rooms. They were too late in waking as in short order the ever hungry fire consumed the entire hall of the upstairs floor that served to hold their rooms.  
They began to cough from lack of oxygen and sought to open their doors in order to escape the encroaching inferno, but they forgot that they had been locked. Panic pierced them and they found themselves too bumbling to unlock so as to make an attempt to escape the burning building made of wood.  
The doors burst suddenly ablaze and they were all sent flying backwards onto the floor as the stray tongues of fire from the explosion licked their nightgowns and they came alive and blazed. In their terror, increased by the sight of their clothing now also incinerating, they could only scream and writhe in utter agony as they too began to burn with their two-storey dwelling.  
In minutes the entire structure is a disturbing and powerful testament to the raw might and untamed, violent nature of the elements of blessed Mother Earth who is beautiful as well as wild and dangerous.  
The only other one to escape this atrocious death, the only one to go unseen by Human eyes, makes a final backward glance at her kittenhood home, not out of any regret or sadness, but out of a child-like fascination, her large yellow eyes opened wide. A last explosion, Dinah jerks, and runs off into the night, into the woods, never to return to the spot of her Human family's resting place and the last resting place of her owner's soul for many a year._

Alice found herself living with her only living relative, the sister of her father, in a place several miles from where they had all died in a blaze indirectly caused by the youngest member. It didn't improve things for her, her aunt was a cruel woman who knew that the girl was somehow involved in their deaths as she was the only member to survive & therefore was incredibly harsh to her as punishment.  
Numerous days the girl would be denied food, not that she much noticed, her carefree, happy attitude had gone with her family and she wouldn't have eaten anyway. She was also denied new clothing and she was forced to wear the same dress she had worn that night to the tea party, the last bit of garb that she owned.  
Alice was too deeply brooding to take a shower and she rarely left the house, so it didn't really matter if people noticed her body odor, even guests that came over as she stayed in her room. The door would be locked when her aunt took the guests on a tour of the house, saying that in the one the girl was laying motionless was a secret room, full of forbidden things too horrendous to name.  
Three dull months passed thusly, until finally, sick of the treatment her aunt was giving her, Alice snapped, the persona of the Red Queen taking over and, using Alice's body, took a butcher's knife and chopped the brutal woman's head off. It was left on a kitchen counter while the body was taken to the backyard and buried in a disrespectful, unceremonious manner.  
Knife still in hand, dress stained with blood, Alice wandered about the grounds, calling for the Hatter and the Hare to come to her in an hour of need, but they would not come. She felt alone, saddened, the sudden dread chill of abandonment, but she would not give up the hope that they would come eventually while she needed them most desperately.  
A carriage! Perhaps it bore the Hatter and the Hare, blessed be those two, within and they would come to her and comfort her. For a final time, Alice felt hope and excitement but didn't let it show in the least.  
Alas that it was not as she hoped. Not two of her dearest friends for whom she had looked with longing in her heart for over two hours. Two police officers exited the house of her aunt and approached her boldly yet with due caution, for the bloody knife remained clutched in her hand.  
"Miss," one uttered, relatively accustomed to such sights of blood on women but not on girls, his partner, having just been commissioned to the force, stood gaping in shock. "Are you the one who killed the woman whose head now rests on the counter within?"  
"No," she answered plainly, certain of herself. "It was the Red Queen who did it, she killed my aunt." The officers heard her words and remembered in the article about her parents' death three months prior and there had been a short paragraph explaining Alice's mental illness.  
"Come with us, Miss," the more seasoned officer spoke sweetly, almost pityingly, gently taking Alice by the arm and led her to the carriage that would carry her to the mental institution.  
It was winter, the New Year had just begun two weeks earlier and the story for years to come would be of 'Mad Alice' who killed her parents and sister and then her aunt three months later, though no one contested the death of her aunt. The cruel old woman was never liked by any of the residents and had gained a reputation as the nastiest woman ever to disgrace England.

The young woman of eighteen years showed no emotion as she sat ever motionless on her bed at the asylum, cradling her toy rabbit in her arms. She had been there for five years, accused of the death of her loving family by setting a house fire and running off to a safe distance to watch as her girlhood home was burned to the ground and shortly thereafter beheading her aunt. Some even said that she laughed maniacally when she heard the painful, horrified screams of her parents and sister and when she licked the blood of her murdered aunt off the murder weapon.  
She heard these things, but she paid them no mind, too occupied with staring blankly at the wall, reliving the horrible moments in the aftermath of the fire. During this, her thoughts strayed to Wonderland where she had been when it all happened, and she suddenly thought how everyone she loved there were likely wondering about her and why she hadn't come in so long.  
At once she laid down and fell immediately into a comatose-like state, heading off to Wonderland, intending not to return, never knowing future events that would change her forever.

It was dark, twisted, unfriendly where at one time it had been lovely and inviting, having changed because of Alice's broken soul. The Red Queen had turned it all into a mesh of suffering and horror, killing it slowly. On sight of the twisted, broken Wonderland, Alice knew then what she had to do, what bold actions she had to take to restore the mental playground of her childhood.  
Immediately she began upon her journey, aided by the March Hare, looking now like a reanimated corpse, and seeming less like the lively, upbeat, eccentric rabbit she had loved so dearly in childhood, and the Cheshire Cat, who had grown mangy and undernourished, but remained happy-go-lucky and helpful. Over the course of the adventure, her friends died slowly, one-by-one, nothing Alice did worked to save them from a terrible death.  
The Hare was squashed under the foot of the Mad Hatter, betrayed by the Hatter who had been so good to all of them, had helped them celebrate Alice's seventh birthday with such vigor and pleasant fellowship. At this, as she wept bitterly over the bloody corpse of the Hare, surrounded by his squished guts, Alice strongly vowed revenge and took it shortly thereafter with utmost glee and pleasure.  
Eventually she came to the Jabberwock, who represented her guilt over the fire that took her parents and sister from her and also separated her from Dinah who she had not seen since that night, and also her greatest challenge, right after the Queen. She managed to overcome him with the help of the Gryphon, a representation of the last bit of her soul that remained good and noble. Afterwards, she headed off to face the Queen, who was in fact Alice and certainly the greatest challenge the young woman would face.  
She mocked Alice, threatening to destroy her should she not turn back and let things go as they were, but it would not be so. Alice had come too far, seen too much, hurt too badly to allow everything to continue as it currently was; she was determined to have her revenge. Rabbit, Cat, Gryphon, all of them had been killed or maimed in some manner & they needed to be avenged, the Queen had to die so that everything would return to the happy place it had been before it all happened, before the fire.  
As the Queen retracted into her throne to a hidden place, surrounded by darkness and only pillars of stone arranged in a circle, Alice stood from her knees and halted her crying from the taunting of the wicked Queen who had caused her so much pain. Into the darkness behind the throne Alice went eagerly, her blue eyes turned an eerie green, her blonde hair a dark brown after the Queen had possessed her body and killed her aunt. For the first time since she couldn't remember, she felt hope, her vivid eyes betraying her eagerness to begin the battle that same moment and also her wish for it to quickly end.  
A fierce battle it was, but it did end relatively quickly, Alice suffering some severe wounds, though she would recover now that her greatest nemesis had been conquered and destroyed. Yet she would not survive long as she thought for when she headed out to see Wonderland restored to its original glory, it vanished about her, faded to nothing. Her shock lasted a while as she woke in the asylum a year after she had lain down and headed off to Wonderland to see how things were going.  
When it finally wore off, she began to cry bitterly, on and on, even after there were no more tears and her eyes were sore, itchy, and red. She cried longer than anyone ever cried before, but it is really no shock that she did, with everyone and everything she ever cherished gone, dead. Wonderland was no more, Mother and Father and Sister were dead, Rabbit was dead, Cat was dead, even Caterpillar, for whom she had little affection, had an impact on her when he died. It was over, the land that had been one and the same with her was gone and with it went the rest of who she was and what defined her.  
Months went by and finally she was done crying, no more tears of sadness would be shed, but she was no better off than she had been before, in fact, she was worse. She took to wandering about the grounds of the asylum, no big deal as she had been deemed less dangerous three years prior and was allowed more space. At one point, the worker who had been assigned to supervise her lost concentration and was distracted by something he decided to check out, innocently thinking Alice was mature enough to stay within sight. Alas that he was so wrong and the young woman took advantage of his distraction to race away to the gate, the bars of which were just wide enough to allow her passage through & she made off with no particular destination.  
Eventually she came to a zoo and, as it had grown quite late and the zoo had closed some minutes before, she was sure that she could go in undetected and have a late-night tour. She slipped in and walked about unhurriedly and unconcerned, smiling happily for the first time since the fire, until at last she came to a tiger's cage in which she saw Cheshire Cat grinning at her with his lively smile, looking very much the healthy cat he had been before the destruction of Wonderland.  
At the sight of him, Alice's smile grew broader and happier and at once she went over to the cage, heedless of any possible danger posed her, and entered. Around his neck she threw her arms in delight and held tightly, clutching the fur on his scruff with one hand and stroking his coat with the other.  
"Come with me, Alice," he whispered in her ear. "Come with me, back to Wonderland, the Wonderland that was, the one we love so well. Come and stay forever."  
The morning saw the proprietor of the zoo arriving early as always, before the other staff members, to check if anything was amiss and to see if he could fix it. Beside him strode a healthy grey cat about ten-years-old with a collar that read 'Dinah', and indeed she was the very cat who had belonged to Alice. The zoo-keeper had taken her in when she fortunately showed up at his house on the fateful night of the fire, some three miles away.  
He came to the tiger's cage and saw there what looked like the still form of a female surrounded by a pool of blood and the alpha male chewing away contentedly on the remains. Fear filled the zoo-keeper and Dinah hissed, though she did not know that it was her former owner's corpse lying lifeless beneath the jaws of the larger beast, nor would she recognize her.  
The man crept over to the cage, thinking to make an identification of the body and found there on her tranquil face, a smile of purest joy mirrored in her dead eyes. At which point the zoo-keepers fear consumed him and he fled from the cage to his office to phone police with Dinah faithfully at his heels.


End file.
